A Costain/Skanska joint venture has clinched the £250m contract to build a new station for Crossrail at Paddington in London as Building predicted last week. Crossrail confirmed the pair had beaten off competition from the consortiums of Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall and Vinci; Bam Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman and Kier Construction; Carillion Construction; and Laing O’Rourke with Strabag, after Building tipped the joint venture to succeed on Friday.
Paddington is the first of Crossrail’s £1.5bn worth of major station construction contracts to be awarded.Crossrail added the main construction contracts for Farringdon and Whitechapel Crossrail stations will be awarded later this year.
The move comes after Building reported that three of the six station contracts, worth an estimated £700m, will be let next year, up to four months later than originally planned, in order to aid congestion within the contractors’ bidding teams.
Andy Mitchell, Crossrail program director confirmed the delay. He said: “The tendering process for the six stations has generated a huge amount of interest from the construction industry with very competitive bids received for the Paddington contract. The main construction contracts for Farringdon and Whitechapel Crossrail stations will be the next to be awarded in late 2011. The remaining contracts for Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road and Liverpool Street will all be awarded by spring 2012.”